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05 October 2005

upgrade, downgrade (the pros and cons of friendster's new face)

a lot have changed since the time i signed up for friendster. i can't even recall how exactly the website looked like while on its beta version. in friendster's new start-up page, i can't help but look for a link that says "friendster classic." that would be something.

don't get me wrong here. i love the new features and all but isn't it a bit too much? let's analyze the pro's first, shall we?

1. friendster blogthis feature, i love (obviously). come to think of it, among the avid internet users, blogging was the next big thing after friendster. it was a good move on friendster's part to include blogs. it's great that you dont have to be registered with friendster to read blogs. for users who want to blog, they no longer have to sign-up on blog sites. a click on friendster and a new blog is created. type away with your thoughts...

2. CSS editorno question this jazzes up profiles in friendster, but after a while, the bling on this feature will soon fade. (more on this later...)

3. Friend Trackerupdated profiles, uploaded pics, and new testimonials. nice things that keep you up to speed when it comes to your friends' friendster activity. and probably a guide to see who's overdoing it...

4. Birthday Remindersthis is a lifesaver! if i had a nickel (or piso na lang) for every time i forget people's birthdays, i'll be a rich man. even birthdays of close friends i can't seem to embed on my brain. and as for those not so very close friends, you'll know their birthdays too. now you'll be ready for the upcoming birthday of your crush!

5. Who's Viewed Meyou'll now know who has viewed your profile, an addition to the 'your profile has been viewed x times' feature. im having mixed emotions on this one. it's nice to see who's been checking you out but on the contrary, people you check out will know you've been checking them out as well.

6. Photos / Photo Albumsfrom a limit of 5 photos to a high of 50 photos you can upload not including the pics you put on your photo albums.

on with the cons...

1. CSS editoras mentioned this feature will jazz up your profile. but from my experience in myspace.com, this will eventually be an annoyance. videos, music, added pics on the profiles equals longer loading time for your page. im only on dial-up, as most of us are, and the additional KB's to download are oftentimes not worth it. edit your profile, personalize. but please avoid uploading things that are of no importance. its in the way of the getting to know you part of friendster.

2. The new start-up pagethe new start-up page also takes some time to load and is too complicated.

...all in all i think friendster took the right step in upgrading their system. i started this analysis thinking that the upgrade was a bad idea. i guess i just miss the simplicity that friendster beta offered. in trying to keep up with other networking sites such as multiply.com and myspace.com, friendster somehow said goodbye to its former self.

fortunately for them we're stuck here. no other community website boasts of the number of people that friendster have. type the name of your grade school classmate on the user search box and there's a good chance he or she is on friendster. maybe even the driver of your school bus is on friendster.